That’s admittedly going to be very difficult for some of the more prominent anti-Trump conservatives – Jonah Goldberg, Erick Erickson, Ben Shapiro, David French, just to name a few – who took nothing short of a slanderous beating by supposed allies for their reticence to support for the presidency a lifelong Democrat with no discernable backbone or principle. But the truth is that authentic conservatives will not find joy in watching Trump reveal himself to be what we always knew he was, because we know – as we’ve always known – the lasting damage he will do to our movement, and thus the country.

That’s why when headlines emerge like the one from the Daily Caller yesterday: “Trump Has Always Backed Amnesty, White House Says,” we feel no sense of satisfaction. Being right about Trump’s untrustworthiness is useful only for those whose ultimate objective is to taunt hateful conservatives-turned-Trumpists like Ann Coulter and John Nolte. People whose ultimate objective is the advancement of conservatism find no joy in seeing Trump morph back into the Democrat he’s always been.

But make no mistake, that’s precisely what is unfolding. Syndicated talk show host Steve Deace penned an absolutely devastating column exposing this reality that every single conservative and Tea Party Republican should read. Tongue firmly planted in his cheek, Deace wrote as though Hillary was president and he was lecturing those of us who couldn’t bring ourselves to support Trump:

Less than eight months from inauguration day, the policies speak for themselves. Obamacare will stay because Republicans weren’t there to keep their multi-year promise to repeal it, which Donald Trump promised to sign if he were elected. Obama’s illegal executive amnesty will stay as well, possibly enshrined in duly passed legislation, and there is no border wall to keep another wave of illegals out. But sadly, that’s not all.

Wages remain stagnant. Government mandates requiring ministries and religious business owners to pay for the killing of children remain in place. Planned Parenthood is fully funded, despite all those videos catching them bloody-handed, peddling in dead baby parts. The Justice Department still refuses to defend the First Amendment freedoms of Christian business owners, let alone prosecute Hillary for her crimes. And now we’re seeing the White House conspire with Democrat leadership in Congress to pass even more stifling debt down to our children. Not to mention cynically tying it to natural disaster relief, of all things.

If you didn’t pick up on his point that came dripping with sarcasm, here it is: there’s no difference. The reason conservatives didn’t want Trump was because he wasn’t – and isn’t – a conservative.

It’s true that had Hillary been elected with this Republican Congress we would not have gotten Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. No true conservative can ever discount that important reality. But we also can’t discount that unlike the current spectacle of Congressional Republican disorientation as they struggle to decide whether to follow a president that is failing to lead while also proposing legislation that departs from traditional conservative orthodoxy, they would have been united in opposition to Hillary’s presidency.

What that means is that Hillary could have never pushed through amnesty like Trump is poised to do. Hillary could have never gotten Republicans to go along with repealing the debt ceiling altogether and granting the government a blank check to spend more than it has, which is precisely what Trump is poised to do.

In other words, as a Republican President, Donald Trump is going to be able to team with Democrats to steamroll Congressional Republicans a lot easier than a Democrat President would have been able to do, Gorsuch notwithstanding.

It’s a nightmare scenario shaping up for the right. If only someone would have warned us.